Sat 3:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
“MUNDANE” SCIENCE FICTION (1593)
[Panelists: Gregory Frost (mod), Barbara Krasnoff, Allen Steele,
Margaret Riley, Steve Miller]
Science fiction can be set in the future without all of the
impossible tropes, such as time travel, faster than light travel,
psi powers and galactic empires. What are some examples, and what
goes into creating it

Sat 6:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
ABOUT THE PHILIP K. DICK AWARD (1602)
[Panelists: Gary Feldbaum (mod), Tim Sullivan, Rock Robertson, Steve
Miller, David Walton]
What is the Philip K. Dick Award, and what does it have to do with
Philadelphia area fandom? How is it administered? What are oame
famous works that have won? What influence does it have in the
field

Sat 7:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
BALONIUM, UNOBTAINIUM AND UPSIDASIUM (1530)
[Panelists: John Ashmead (mod), Darrell Schweitzer, John Monahan,Sharon Lee]
From cavorite to kryptonite, science fiction fiction writers love to
add new elements to the periodic table. How do you create
convincing imaginary substances and what do you do with them

Sat 8:00 PM in Plaza IV (Four) (1 hour)
EXPANDING A SHORT STORY INTO A NOVEL (1505)
[Panelists: Steve Miller (mod), Sharon Lee, Lawrence M. Schoen, Mike
McPhail]
How do you turn a short work into a longer work without just simply
padding. What are proper ways to expand a story

Sat 9:00 PM in Plaza II (Two) (1 hour)
I WANNA BE A PUBLISHER! (1500)
[Panelists: Sally Wiener Grotta (mod), Brian Koscienski, Steve Miller, Mike McPhail]
Some people want to go beyond just writing and editing books into
the world of publishing. If you really do want to publish books,
what steps do you take? What pitfalls must you avoid

Sat 10:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
CHARACTERS YOU CAN NOT STOP WRITING ABOUT (1603)
[Panelists: Peter Prellwitz (mod), Danielle Ackley-McPhail, David
Sklar, Sharon Lee]
There are characters or character types so popular that certain
writers can not stop writing about them even if they want to. Can
you name your favorite examples

Sun 1:00 PM in Plaza II (Two) (1 hour)
IS THAT A “STORY”? (1611)
[Panelists: Darrell Schweitzer (mod), Jim Freund, David Sklar,Sharon Lee]
Ever since the days of the “New Wave” we have had this argument.
What is a story? Are there works published that are not stories

Sun 2:00 PM in Crystal Ballroom Three (1 hour)
THE BUSINESS OF WRITING (1621)
[Panelists: Steve Miller (mod), D.H. Aire, Christine Norris, Alex
Lidell]
Everyone talks about the craft of writing, but what are some of the
hidden pitfalls from the business side of… well… the business?
From contract basics to handling taxes, published professionals will
talk about what you need to know, and what traps are out there for
the unwary.

Thanks to our longtime readers and fans we’re finishing up the 25th Anniversary Year of the Liaden Universe® and what a grand year we’ve had. We’ve met and talked with many of you at conventions, the BEA, and on our Trade Secret book tour. Jethri’s adventures, like Theo’s, have brought round lots of commentary, and Trade Secret hit the Bookscan bestseller list at Number 6 — a real accomplishment in these days of movie and TV-tie-in domination of the Science Fiction bestseller lists.

One thing we’ve been surprised by is how many of our readers tell us they’ve been with us (or our characters) since close to the beginning. To help us celebrate Trade Secret and our 25th year of Liaden publication please share with us your first Liaden experience — and how many titles you’ve read since then — and we’ll randomly select 5 lucky responders for a free Trade Secret audio book courtesy of Audible! We’ll be selecting winners based on replies received by midnight Friday,December 6 (our time in snowy Maine). You’ve got 5 shots — tell us how you got started in the Liaden Universe®!

For January we’ve added a new story to the line-up over at Splinter Universe — you can find it there now. We plan to add a story each month as well as the occasional guest story as well. The new story, “The Rifle’s First Wife” is a novelette of just over 13000 words and will be online for a few months. If you’d like to support these expanded efforts, read the story, and find a donate link at the end.

Meanwhile, as things stand now Sharon will not be at Boskone the weekend between Valentine’s Day and President’s Day, but Steve will. Look for a Friends of Liad Breakfast, probably Saturday February 15 in one of the hotel restaurants. Steve had a full slate of program items, a reading, signing and kaffeeklatsch on schedule.

We’ve published a new Liaden Universe® story over at the Splinter Universe site — look for “Roving Gambler” along with other splinters and stories. We’ll be updating that site more regularly now — watch for some spoken word reprises of older (non-Liaden) Lee & Miller fiction starting soon. You can help support these efforts — you’ll see donation buttons on the stories and in the margins there.

Coming up this summer, Lee & Miller will be attending DetCon 1 — this years NASFIC or North American Science Fiction Convention. That’ll be in July, and we expect to have an evening Liaden party, autograph, have Friends of Liad breakfast, and read from works in progress — as well as be on panels and wander the wonders of the convention. Our Splinter Universe site helps support our travel to meet fans around the US.

Meanwhile, if you’ve got questions or think you may have missed a story, there are two sites to check out. One is the Liaden Universe® Wiki, a fan organized and run site with all kinds of Liaden information. If you want to get answers to mysteries, or to help solve questions for others, that’s a great place to visit. The other place is Pinbeam Books, where there’s a list of the available Lee & Miller chapbook releases in ebook format. We don;t sell from that site — but it tells you what’s available and where to get it — Amazon, B&N/Nook, or Smashwords.

This year’s iteration of the world’s oldest ongoing SF convention will take place November 21 to 23, 2014 & will feature Steve Miller and Sharon Lee as Principal Speakers in Cherry Hill, NJ. Along with dozens of other well-known writers, artists, filkers, and fans they’ll bring lots of literary fun to the outskirts of Philadelphia the weekend before Thanksgiving. See you at Philcon 2014?